A microwave applicator employs microwave radiation to heat an object. Microwave applicators may be used in many different applications ranging from home or personal use for heating foods, to commercial or industrial uses.
Efforts have been made to adapt microwave ovens designed for domestic kitchen use for use in laboratory specimen and reagent heating. Multi-mode microwave systems including those designed for domestic use and commercial laboratory use exist. Further, single-mode microwave systems have been designed for laboratory and industrial use. Both multi-mode and single mode microwave system rely on a resonant cavity and modal microwaves. However, such devices have inherent disadvantages and limitations which may include: uneven specimen heating due to the variation of microwave energy density within the mode patterns, bulkiness due in part to the requirement for a resonant cavity, complexity in order to control or compensate for variation in energy density with the field to be heated, imprecision, unsuitability for processing single specimens or small groups of specimen, troublesome constraints on specimen orientation and placement, power and voltage requirements, excess heat generation, requirement to use a fixed microwave frequency, and high cost.
Therefore there has been a need for a type of microwave applicator that overcomes the disadvantages and limitations of existing multi-mode and single-mode microwave systems.